Homicide under investigation

VIDEO WITH STORY -- Investigators from the state and city police are probing for clues in the city’s second homicide of 2008. Bristol County District Attorney’s office spokesman Gregg Miliote confirmed police responded to 108 Hamlet St. after a 911 call was received at 1:35 a.m. Friday. No arrests had been as of late Friday afternoon.

Investigators from the state and city police are probing for clues in the city’s second homicide of 2008.

Bristol County District Attorney’s office spokesman Gregg Miliote confirmed police responded to 108 Hamlet St. after a 911 call was received at 1:35 a.m. Friday. No arrests had been as of late Friday afternoon.

“We’re aggressively investigating this case,” Miliote said. “We have people out on the scene right now.”

Miliote declined to provide the identity of the victim, or the method of this death, however, The Herald News has learned the victim’s name is Derrick Hogue.

Neighbors in the area of 108 Hamlet St. said they heard gunshots, with one woman reporting hearing six shots around 2 a.m. Another man said he heard what he originally thought to be fireworks at approximately 2:30 a.m. That man said the noise was soon followed by the presence of police officers outside of his apartment building at 114 Hamlet St.

Tony Khoury, landlord of 108 Hamlet St., said Hogue lived in a second-floor apartment and described him as a “quiet guy.”

“I would only see him once a month when I would come to collect the rent,” Khoury said. “I got no complaints from anyone about him.”

Khoury said Hogue was in his mid-30s and lived alone in the apartment for the past year. He knew him to have a girlfriend and children. He said Hogue originally hailed from New York.

After police cleared the scene shortly before 11 a.m., the victim’s apartment appeared in disarray, walls covered in a black substance used to locate fingerprints.

At that time, Khoury was putting a new entry door on the victim’s apartment after police had taken the original door as evidence.

While police remained on the scene, the area in front of 108 and 110 Hamlet St. remained cordoned off, including a driveway adjacent to the left side of the six-unit apartment building. Police began clearing the scene around 10:20 a.m.

Other than saying they heard something, neighbors upstairs from the victim refused comment.

As police investigated following the initial early morning call, Fall River Police spokesman Sgt. Paul Bernier said additional locations in the area of the shooting were temporarily cordoned off due to related investigations.

Residents living along Hamlet Street, which connects East Main Street with Plymouth Avenue, said the neighborhood is generally quiet.

“I’ve been here for about a year, and what I’ve heard from people who live around here is that it was a lot worse. But I’ve never seen anything that bad,” one woman who asked not to give her name said.

Page 2 of 2 -

“It’s a quiet neighborhood, very quiet,” Kristina Finley said while sitting in front of her apartment.

Finley said she heard through a secondhand source that someone kicked the door down to the victim’s apartment before shooting him.

The city’s first homicide occurred in February. Prosecutors allege Frederick P. Thompkins was beaten to death by Rene Gosselin, in an incident involving narcotics.